Moon Handbooks: Cabo features detailed descriptions of virtually every hotel, motel, campground, and resort between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. Mix in frank reviews of dining choices ranging from taco stands to romantic waterfront restaurants and coverage of outdoor recreation activities such as kayaking, scuba diving, fishing, hunting, cycling, and hiking, and you’ve got the most comprehensive guidebook to Cabo around.

Back in 1996 I was looking to travel to Cabo for the first time. I was totally unfamiliar with the area and looking to read up on it. In searching the book stores I couldn’t seem to find anything with more than a page or two talking about Cabo. Then I found it… the PERFECT guidebook– “Cabo – La Paz to Cabo San Lucas”. I can’t even begin to tell you how helpful this book has been to me. It helped me choose a hotel on my first visit, a condo for my second visit, beaches to dive at, places to pick up groceries, etc. If it’s in Cabo, it’s in the book! The funny thing is that book has made many more trips to Cabo than I have! It travelled down there with my dad & his wife, it visited with my friend’s parents, and it even went on a honeymoon down there with a couple from my church! Everyone raves about the book when they return. If you’re going to Cabo, this is the only book you’ll need for everything you’ll want to know!

My family just returned from 2 weeks in Cabo. During this time we used the Moon guide (3rd ed.) extensively. We visited San Jose, Cabo SL, Todos Santos, and east cape as well as various remote points in between and found the book accurate every step of the way. This book is very well researched and complete – although pricing was a couple of years out of date. I assume the 4 th edition corrects that. This book is a “must have” for travelers to Cabo who want to do more than just stay in a pre-packaged all inclusive resort.

This concise guide covers the bottom quarter of the Baja California peninsula from La Paz to Cabo San Lucas. It’s chock full of useful data and advice cultivated over four editions. The sports and recreation sections are admirable, and there’s good information on the local food and drink. The hotel listings are useful too, although exact room prices are not quoted for some reason. Instead there are price ranges with “under US$25” the lower end category. Restaurant meal prices are also missing – “moderately priced” can mean anything – but opening hours and menu descriptions are provided. None of this will be a real problem for the vast majority of visitors, but low-budget backpackers will be left guessing at times. I found the coverage of city bus services skimpy, although inter-city buses are adequately described. I sought and didn’t find tips on getting too/from the airports on the cheap (US$14 per person for a colectivo to cover the 12 km to/from La Paz Airport doesn’t sound like the cheapest option to me). Maybe Cabo just isn’t a shoestring destination the way Thailand is – and I know Joe Cummings is very familiar with Thailand. Joe has plenty of helpful hints for motorists, but I couldn’t find anything about parking. Is free, secure parking so universally available around Cabo that’s it’s not even worth a mention? Travelers who have used the Moon Handbooks series in past will be impressed by the resigned format exemplified in this volume. Cummings himself took most of the black and white photos, and I like the way sites are clearly labeled on the maps and not listed in cumbersome keys the way they are in Lonely Planet. However, 18 maps in a 288-page guidebook seems too few to me. These minor caveats aside, Moon Handbooks Cabo is value for money and it will serve the independent, adventuresome traveler well.